Climate Change as a Security Issue

Within security studies, climate change mainly figures in studies trying to settle whether a causal link can be demonstrated from climate change to military conflict. Meanwhile, general climate debates increasingly assert that climate change as such is the biggest threat facing humankind. Climate change is ‘securitized’ in two very different ways. What policies do these imply, respectively? Is it worrying and/or unavoidable that climate change is turned into a security issue? How do we imagine the international relations of a future constituted politically around a ‘climate emergency’?

Ole Wæver, Ph.D., Dr.h.c., is a Professor of International Relations at University of Copenhagen, and Director of the Center for Resolution of International Conflicts. Internationally he is known for coining the concept of ‘securitization’ within security theory, and as one of the main figures in developing the ‘Copenhagen School’ in security studies. His current research looks at the relationship between securitization theory and climate change. Recent publications include Resolving International Conflict: Dynamics of Escalation, Continuation and Transformation” co-edited with Isabel Bramsen and Poul Poder (Routledge, 2019) and Assembling Exclusive Expertise: Knowledge, Ignorance and Conflict Resolution in the Global South, co-edited with Anna Leander (Routledge 2018).

Location

Research Lounge (level 5, room 552) in Arts West (building number 148a), The University of Melbourne.

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